|
|
06/05/01 - N.S.E. GROUNDS, GOREGAON,
BOMBAY Review by MTV
India:
Bryan Adams chose to return to India in the summer of 2001, and
boy did he add to the heat!
His show in Mumbai (on May 6th) was a sure-fire sell-out, and the
crowds outside indicated that passes might even have been oversold.
The enthusiasm of the 40,000 strong crowd was whipped to a frenzy
by MTV VJs- Nikhil & Maria, and the inspired opening act by
Mumbai based Aqua Flow paid respects to Santana, Eminem, Shaggy,
etc.
Though Aqua Flow sounded pretty neat, they had to plead with the
Adam-hungry crowd to let them finish their half-hour act. Not too
surprising!
Now, we bet you've read and heard enough about Bryan,
his bio, his dog, his guitar and even the show. But here are pictures
and snippets you probably wouldn't have seen elsewhere:
Highlights
*It was a truly live show. No lip-synching a-la Vengaboys, Tunga-girls,
Def Leppard, etc.
*Bryan flew in with 7000 kg of sound & light equipment and his
own supervising crew. (He also had his own chef.)
*Bryan's sound and light engineers worked with clockwork precision,
the lighting was different for each song, muted for ballads and
blazing for others. They had it all rehearsed and set, the order
of songs, the lights, the sound… everything!
Listen to a typical pre song Bryan Adams crew conversation "5…4…3…2…1….
light (pre sets)… Best of Me… go Bryan!"
*MTV used an eleven-camera
set-up to catch Bryan & his fans rocking. It was a 35-member
production team.
*Apart from his technical crew, musicians Keith Scott on guitar
and drummer Mike McLeary, (who have been with the band since inception)
accompanied Bryan.
*The concert provided the MTV production crew with 32 separate channels
of audio. (Out of which 16 tracks were from the drums itself!)
*Bryan Adams/crew wanted to meet VJ Malaika Arora backstage, which
she politely declined, as she had to leave early.
*VJs Nikhil, Maria, Malaika and Mini sang, swayed and shrieked as
Bryan performed. Lezz Lewis, Phalguni Pathak, Sachin Tendulker and
Arshad Warsi were also seen waking up their neighbours.
*A brave paraplegic girl in a wheel chair was seen singing along
with each and every song that Bryan sang. The joy on her face and
the fulfilment on her mom's face was a sight to be seen.
*Simran from Mumbai was the lucky girl who Bryan picked out from
the crowd to sing with him. And a natural performer that she was,
she seemed completely at ease with the lyrics, the mike and Bryan
by her side.
Lowlights
*People in the 300-buck enclosure jumped over the barricade and
were soon in the 500-buck enclosure closer to the stage.
*Super enthu girls right in front were smashed between the marauding
crowd thronging towards the stage & the barricades ahead.
*Junta was fainting left, right & centre and had to be 'rescued'
over the barricades near the stage. The heat, dehydration, and claustrophobia
could be held responsible. (Later this became a modus operandi as
many saw this as a chance to be peacefully seated right under the
stage.)
*The traffic arrangements were very poor and there was chaos outside
the venue.
*Mobile phone networks were jammed and all those who planned to
'reach there and call on the cell' in all likelihood would never
have managed to meet up. Even SMS was jammed!
*There were complaints from some quarters that the quality of sound
in some areas wasn't good enough.
All said and seen it was a good show!
And if not on cloud no 9, one could surely manage to reach cloud
No.7!!
|
|
|
This
show was broadcast on MTV India and later released on an Indian
only live album called 'Do To You...What You Do To Me' (above) you
can buy this album from